Rival Ayatollah Rips Iran`s `Antihuman Regime`

LONDON — One of Iran`s senior religious leaders, held under house arrest in the holy city of Mashhad for two years, has issued a blistering attack on the

``anti-Islamic`` regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and called on Iranians to refuse to serve in the war against Iraq.

A copy of the 20-page statement by Ayatollah Hasan Qomi-Tabatabai was made available to The Tribune by Mehrdad Khonsari, leader of an Iranian exile organization called Friends of Iran.

Khonsari said the ayatollah`s son, Sadiq Qomi, was arrested on Oct. 19 or 20 for distributing copies of the statement in Tehran and is now held in Tehran`s notorious Evin Prison. Sadiq Qomi`s wife was arrested about 10 days later, he said.

So far, he said, there have been no reports of any action taken against the ayatollah himself.

Khonsari said the statement reached London via exile sources in Paris. Copies were smuggled out of Iran to various cities in Europe, he said.

Meanwhile, Iran`s Prime Minister, Hussein Musavi, fueled speculation Saturday that his country was ready to mount a new offensive in its 7-year-old war with Iraq and to create new problems for U.S. ships in the troubled Persian Gulf.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Musavi as saying that a national military mobilization set in motion Friday will also confront American ``mischievous acts`` in the gulf.

Ayatollah Qomi-Tabatabai, 75, is, along with Khomeini, one of five so-called grand ayatollahs, men of learning who are regarded in the Shia sect of Islam as ``sources of emulation`` and who attract a large following. He has been under house arrest since 1985 because of his criticism of Khomeini`s assumption of political power.

In the statement, drafted in response to questions submitted to him by his followers, Qomi-Tabatabai denounced what he called the ``antihuman, anti- Islamic regime`` of Khomeini and said its ``atrocities`` have turned many Iranians away from religion.

The government, he said, is unconstrained by ``the law, common sense, humanity, conscience and finally pity and other humane considerations.``

``Today there is freedom for no one in Iran,`` he said, adding that it was quite likely he would be killed ``by these vicious people`` who rule the country.

He branded the war with Iraq as haram-forbidden under Islamic law-and said, ``Killing or being killed in this war, going to the war front, helping the war effort, support or encouragement for people to go to war, are in any manner haram.``

Khomeini on Friday ordered all ``able-bodied men with fighting experience`` to report for combat. Tehran Radio quoted him as saying the war

``is at the top of our priorities.``

Qomi-Tabatabai said it was untrue that those killed in the war are martyrs and assured a place in heaven.

An estimated 1 million people on both sides have been killed.

He said Iranian-inspired riots last August in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia were ``against the declared will of God.``

He refrained from mentioning Khomeini by name, in accordance with Shia tradition that clergymen must avoid personal discord. But in a clear reference to him, he said:

``The appointment of a single person to a supreme position without any form of checks and balances and without his being subject to some form of

(legal) code is nonexistent in Islam. I, for one, will never insult the honorable Shiite faith by ever acknowledging such a preposterous claim.``

He said executions and other acts carried out by the regime are contrary to the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. His statement represents the most outspoken criticism of the regime by a major religious figure since the late Ayatollah Kazem Shariat-Madari clashed with Khomeini shortly after the revolution in 1979. Shariat-Madari was defrocked before his death in 1985.

Khonsari said other grand ayatollahs agree with Qomi-Tabatabai but have not spoken out as he has.

He said Qomi-Tabatabai has a following in the Mashhad area and in neighboring Pakistan of about 15 million people.

Qomi-Tabatabai also was critical of the regime of the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. In 1963 Qomi-Tabatabai was sent in internal exile to Karaj, a town about 25 miles northwest of Tehran, and not freed until the revolution came to power.